New Training Courses from Google - DigCit and Accessibility

Google has some great resources for educators at the Google for Education Training Center. Included are courses on Chromebooks, becoming a Trainer, and Fundamentals and Advanced training for using G Suite in the classroom.

They recently added two new courses that are very relevant to educators. Like the other courses, they are easy to use and excellent materials.

The Digital Citizenship and Safety Course helps teachers learn how to help their students stay safe online and become responsible digital citizens.

The Tools for Diverse Learners Training helps teachers learn how to use the accessibility features in Chromebooks and G Suite to help their students succeed.

Take a look at these two new courses, as well as the rest of the training center, and see how they can help you help your students.



Related:

Google for Education Resources 

Texthelp Announces Teach for Google - free PD to help educators use Google Edu

Texthelp, a language and literacy support software company, has just announced Teach for Google, a new, online, professional development resource for educators. It is designed to help educators use Google Apps for Education to increase student achievement.

Teach for Google has short courses containging how-to videos, tips and tricks, checklists, templates and more to help teachers not only learn about Google Apps, but how to use them effectively in the classroom.

The free version has 2 courses available as well as lots of how-to's for individual Google Apps.

The Related Videos Section has how-to videos about Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms and Drawings.

You can also pay to access more courses.


Texthelp is the company behind Read&Write for Google, a very popular app used in Education.





Related:

Google for Education Resources

Google App and Chromebooks Resources - learn how to better use them

Resources to get Started With Google Apps and Chromebooks


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Google's Own "Learn Google Apps" Site - great resource for Google Apps users

One of the great things about educators is that we share lots of resources. It's pretty easy to find tons of tips, helpful articles and tutorials out there, created by educators. There are a whole lot about Google Apps. 

But, Google has their own site to help you learn how to use Google Apps, Learn Google Apps.

The site has tips on switching from other systems, tutorials, articles, tips and tricks, videos, examples of using Google Apps and much more, You can also learn by each app individually.

There's even an weekly episode of the "Apps Show" where you can learn about new tips and features.

If you use Google Apps, this is a great place to start.


Related:

Google Apps for Education Resources

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Google Updates and Improves its Learning Center for Teacher Training

Google has updated and improved its Learning Center for Teacher Training with new use cases and best practices, making it even more useful and easier to learn about Google apps.

The site has some great resources and training for:

• Android Tablets for Education
• Calendar
• Chrome
• Chromebooks
• Classroom
• Digital Citizenship
• Docs Suite
• Docs
• Drawings
• Drive
• Forms
• Gmail
• Google Maps
• Google Play for Education
• Implementing Google Apps
• Search
• Sheets
• Sites
• Slides
• YouTube

Each topic has an introduction, basics, and advanced sections depending on your level of experience with that app.

There are lessons, case studies, examples and best practices, and ways to connect with other educators.

It is an excellent resource for all educators

Free computer training resources and courses

As technology changes and schools upgrade software, add new apps, change hardware or operating systems, and more, faculty, staff and students need training and support. GCFLearnFree is a program of Goodwill Industries of Eastern NC and provides quality online learning courses for free. They have a large amount of free computer training resources that are well designed, easy to use and understand, and great for sharing with faculty, staff, and students. The Office 2010 course is great and I am sharing it with our users to help them transition from Office 2003 to Office 2010 because of the different menu system.

The computer courses page  has 19 courses including Computer Basics, Email, Internet, Social Media, Google Apps, iPads, and much more.

This is a must bookmark, must share resource. http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers 


Related:

Collection of free training resources for Windows, Office, Google Apps, and more

New Teacher Orientation ideas and questions

NEW TEACHER ORIENTATION

I'm working on my Master's Degree in Educational Leadership (I already have one in Educational Technology) and my current course is "Developing Teachers." In this course we are looking at recruiting, training, and retaining teachers and this week we are looking at new teacher orientation programs.


When I started, the new teacher orientation program was three days before the rest of the teachers came in. We had talks from each department, received the curriculum for our class, and had some various presentations on different topics. The current new teacher orientation program is similar, but also has the new teachers meeting together once a month throughout the year for more training and support.


Some of the things that I felt were lacking and some of the new teachers from last year also thought were missing:


1. Orientation to computer systems - making sure every teacher has a login for the computers, email, and student information system and then having training on how to use them all. It is very minimal right now.


2. More information about special education services and how the process works.


3. A list of "people to go to" for different issues, such as computer problems, supply needs, and so forth.


4. List of services available to students - special education, social work, health and medical, etc.


5. More on classroom management that specifically addresses the policies of the district rather than being general.


6. Instead of just handing out the curriculum, provide time to look over the curriculum and then have someone from that department to help you with any issues, especially with the material for the first month of school.


7. They currently get an afternoon to go to their building and start setting up their rooms, but it would be nice to have time with the department chair, to look over your classroom, get a tour of the building and get shown where resources and offices are. Currently, it is up to each school to try to fit in a tour when time permits and I think it should be a formal part of the orientation program.


8. A new teacher orientation booklet with all resources, expectations, schedule, rules and procedures. Some of this is handed out now, but it is not combined into a comprehensive book. It probably wouldn't hurt to have this available for all teachers, especially when there have been changes made to policies and procedures from the previous year.


9. The realities of the school system - budget issues, student behavior, buildings, etc. It can be a shock to many new teachers coming out of college with their idealistic views to suddenly run head on into the reality of run down schools, no supplies or resources, student discipline issues, lack of parental support, and other realities of teaching. 




What does your district's new teacher orientation program look like? What do you think should be in a new teacher orientation program?








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Teacher Training Videos

Teacher Training Videos is a great web site with, yep, you guessed it, teacher training videos. The topics range from PowerPoint, Moodle, Twitter, to Blackboard, Blogger and YouTube. The videos are easy to follow and the site has a huge amount of resources available for teachers.

This is a great way to learn about some new technologies and how to use them from the comfort of your home. And, it's free.